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The Top 30 Most Popular Broadside Ballad Tunes

Here you can listen to the 30 most popular melodies from the Broadside Ballad Collections in the Meertens Institute and the Royal Library.
  1. Wie Nederlands bloed - Those of Dutch blood
  2. Al is ons prinsje - Although our little prince
  3. Wilhelmus - Prinsenmars - Wilhelmus - Prince's March
  4. Henri's drinklied - Henri's drinking song
  5. De wereld is in rep en roer - The world is in a state of uproar
  6. Io, vivat
  7. De zilvervloot - The Silver Fleet 
  8. Kolijn een brave boerenzoon - Kolijn, an honest farmers son
  9. Wij leven vrij wij leven blij - We live freely, we live happily
  10. Als ik naar je blinde ogen kijk - Looking into your blind eyes
  11. God save the King
  12. Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser - Austrian national anthem
  13. Schep vreugde in het leven - Lead a joyful life
  14. O Holland schoon gij leeft in vrede - Oh beautiful Holland thou liv'st in peace
  15. Zusje, kun je mij soms ook vertellen - Sister, could you tell me
  16. In de Nes daar moet je wezen - The Nes is the place to be
  17. Ik drink de nieuwe most - I drink the new must
  18. Overschotje - Leftovers
  19. Pierlala
  20. Zachtjes klinkt het avondklokje - Softly rings the evening bell
  21. Van de handel - About trade
  22. Moeder ik kan je niet missen - Mother, I can't live without you
  23. Daar komen de schutters - Here come the shooters
  24. Aan de oever van een snelle vliet - By the banks of a rapid brook
  25. Aan de muur van het oude kerkhof - On the wall of the old cemetery
  26. Het ouderengraf - The elders' grave
  27. Waar de blanke top der duinen - Where the white tops of the dunes
  28. Daar bij die molen - Over there by the mill
  29. Dat gaat naar Den Bosch toe (Zoete lieve Gerritje) - Going to Den Bosch (Dear, sweet Gerritje)
  30. Daar was laatst een meisje loos - Once there was a naughty girl
About this Top 30
In 2004 the Meertens Institute and the Royal Library put their combined collections of broadside ballads on the Internet, on the site of The Memory of the Netherlands. All song sheets of the collections Wouters and Moormann have been scanned and unlocked. There is very little music notation on the sheets, but there are tune indications. The broadside ballads were written to the tune of existing melodies, which were indicated by formulas such as "to the tune of".

For this Top 30 not only the popularity of the song texts is counted, but especially the popularity of the melodies. Our criteria were:
  • - the number of contrafacta (new song texts to an existing melody)
  • - the popularity of a song text (i.e. the number of broadsides on which it appears)
  • - the number of different tune indications for one melody
  • - if the melody is still known
  • - its popularity in other sources from the period

Musical Sources
The melodies wich are missing on the broadsides are taken from other sources from the period in which they were popular. Most of these have been found in the libraries of the Meertens Institute (especially folk tunes) and the Theater Institute Nederland (light music), both in Amsterdam. Many tunes can also be found in Fl. van Duyse, Het oude Nederlandsche lied. The Hague 1903-1908 (3 volumes). Although many tunes are from abroad, we have always chosen Dutch texts which were sung to them.

The Artists
We asked popular singers to interpret one or two songs from our Top 30. Fourteen did so. We made arrangements for instruments from the late 19th century, which is when most of the song sheets are from: accordion and harmonica, violin, double bass, guitar, piano, and hurdy-gurdy. The singers are Bob Fosko, Suze van Grootel, Bennie Huisman, Freek de Jonge, Marc Krone, De Lullo's (Kees Prins, Herman Koch and Michiel Romeijn), Nico van der Meel, Joost Prinsen, Maarten van Roozendaal, Mieke Stemerdink and Jeroen Zijlstra. They are accompanied by Grigori Sarolea (violin), Bouke Feleus (accordion, violin, double bass, guitar, piano), Louis Grijp (guitar), Erik Beijer (double bass), René Meeuws (hurdy-gurdy), Willem Schot (harmonica) and Kees Schul (piano).
A selection appeared on the CD De kist van Pierlala. Straatliederen uit het geheugen van Nederland (Pierlala's chest: Broadside ballads from the memory of the Netherlands on Globe) (www.globerecords.nl).